The winners of the photo competition Memorial Maria Lusia International Mountain and Nature Photo Contest has just been published. Carsten Egevang is awarded "Highly commended " in the category " Man in the Mountain". See all the winners here!
The winning photo is from June 2013, when Carsten visited Siorapaluk - Greenland and the world's northernmost settlement. The picture demonstrates the traditional and unique form of bird catching is going on in the Thule area, where little auks caught with net.
"Ever since I started working as a biologist with little auk in Greenland, I had a desire to photograph how the locals harvest the small species in their colonies. Bird hunting with net is (unlike in the Faroe Islands and Iceland) do not usually something you practice in Greenland. I always thought this ancient way of hunting to be very exciting and had a wish of photographing this for many years. In the summer of 2013, I finally succeed when I came to Siorapaluk with my camera. Along with hunter Qillaq Danielsen, we visited one of the nearby little auk colonies. Qillaq got the catch of the starling large seabirds to look effortless, but when I had to try, I realized it was something that required exercise. Net movement must be synchronized perfectly with the speedy little bird rapid movements before there was success - certainly not an easy maneuver!"
"Little auks are either cooked and eaten immediately, or used to produce regional dish Kiviaq - blubber-preserved little auks. Kiviaq be created by the hull and the meat from a ringed seal is removed, and instead the seal cavity filled with 400-500 little auks. The blubber from the seal ferment / ripen the uncooked birds, and after a 4-month time buried under rocks, is the kiviaq ready to be eaten. I had the opportunity to taste Kiviaq during National Day in Siorapaluk, and could self- heavy note that the descriptions I've read earlier, where the taste is described as a cross between salty liquorice and very strong cheese, actually very apt ... "
